Psychosocial factors for fatigue, anxiety and depression among Japanese young male employees

Introduction
The aim of this study is to examine psychosocial factors for fatigue, anxiety and depressive symptoms among Japanese young male employees. In Japan, the male suicide rate had remarkably increased in 1998, especially in their forties to sixties. Today, the number of suicide of the middle-aged male gradually decreased, young male in their twenties and thirties, however, increased in number. Personnel staffers in big companies are anxious about the young male employees who seem to be the high risk group on mental health now.

Methods
The subjects are all male employees of a middle-sized engineering company in the suburbs of Tokyo. Eight hundred and sixty-six questionnaires containing Brief Job Stress Questionnaire were delivered and 828 ( males : 693, females : 108, unknown : 27) of them were collected. The response rate was 95.6%. Excluding female and insufficient data, a total of 510 cases of male employees were divided into two groups, the employees under thirty years old (the U-30 group (N=133)) and those who are thirty-years and older (N=377). We entered quantitative workload, qualitative workload, work control, interpersonal conflict, social support from supervisors, social support from coworkers, social support from family/friends, employment grade, etc. as independent variables, and fatigue, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as dependent variables. Multiple regression analyses were done among each group.

Results
Among fatigue, anxiety and depressive symptoms, latter two were significantly high in the U-30 group. Multiple regression analyses showed that three kinds of social support were the factors more significant among the U-30 than others, while work control and interpersonal conflict, which were significant among the others, had no significance among the U-30.

Discussion
The U-30 male employees group was at high risk on mental health compared with the older ones. Providing good social support can be one possible solution to promote young employees’ mental health.